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Central Africa: EPAs, threat to regional integration

"In their current form, the EPAs [Economic Partnership Agreements] are a threat to the process of regional integration in Africa," representative of the Economic Community of Central Africa (ECCAS), Carlos Bonfim, said during the coordination meeting of negotiations on the partnership with the European Union (EU), held in Gabon in August. Bonfim highlighted the points of divergence between ECCAS and the EU. He pointed out that several issues such as market access, clearing customs revenue losses, accompanying measures and export subsidies are still sources of stalled negotiations with the European Union.He expressed his wish to see the divergent views of the regions reconciled in the context of EU-Africa summit in April 2014. He calls on the African Union to play its leadership role in this regard.